No I don't mean the Stobart deal. The RFL's incompetence regarding that deal is supposed to be one of the reasons IL is unhappy with the RFL, which I completely agree with him on.

For him to then arrange what must be from a financial point of view a similar deal for Wigan is poor.

How do you know what the deal is?

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"How do you know what the deal is?'" Yeah I'm sure they're just throwing money at us.. companycheck.co.uk/company/04594406

Quote ="Rogues Gallery"How do you know what the deal is?'" Yeah I'm sure they're just throwing money at us.. companycheck.co.uk/company/04594406

No No No

I think you'll find it was called the "pIe Pad"!

You're wasting your time. This is the start of the 2014 Head of Steam, which will gradually build and build throughout the season until Wigan either win nothing, at which point it will explode, or they win something, at which point it will mysteriously dissipate with red faces all round but no apologies offered.

I know there are doom mongers on here who are ready to give IL both barrells everytime he farts, but some of us are quite capable of criticising one aspect of the club without thinking that there's a major crisis!

I'm looking forward to next season, we've got a talented, young squad with plenty of strength in depth, some excellent prospects coming in through the academy, 6 new signings and we've got 2 trophies to defend, plus a WCC in Australia for the first time in 20 years. I simply think the club could have done better with their main shirt sponsor, as do others, this has no bearing on how I think we'll perform on the pitch, and doesn't stop me from knowing that we are leading the way in so many other off-field areas.

The evidence suggests that we have struggled somewhat to obtain a shirt sponsor for this coming season when really this shouldn't be the case. Some people are happy with the deal, others aren't, but it now seems on here you either get tarred with the happyclapper tag or the doom monger tag simply for voicing an opinion on one aspect of the club.

As a supporter of a club that really seems to be on the up in recent years, I'm just tired of the endless prophecies of doom from so many different quarters, all of which seem to stem from a baseline assumption that 9 times out of 10 the club will get things wrong, and yet almost none of which ever come to fruition.

It doesn't really matter who does it or why, there is so much of it that it tends to blend into one predicable monotonous drone of disapproval, which occasionally rises to spectacular climaxes of silliness - the Gareth Hock affair, the chairman 'trousering club profits' ... so I'm certainly not going to apologise if one-off complainants get lumped in with all the usual suspects

I've got two views on this sponsorship deal. We don't know anything about it yet, so how can we get upset (yet more negative assumptions)? And actually does it matter that much? - will Wigan RL go under, are we in the gutter, will it diminish our brand when we've done the double and are now set to play the Aussie champs in Sydney?

I just think it's yet another yawn-inducing storm in a teacup.

I can't think of one single multi-national company that I would be proud to have emblazoned on the Wigan shirt.

How about Energy companies? Banks? The dubious working practices and non-union recognition of leading IT companies like Amazon?

Emirates? I'm sorry I don't want to be associated with companies backed by regimes with such appalling human rights records.

Why not use the Wigan name to support something good the way Barcelona do? Failing that I'm happy to support local business. I reckon Wigan are doing just fine.

Such as?

I for one am not suggesting IL is a fool, but for fans to think that sponsorship is unimportant if we continue to win trophies is a bit naive. Any main sponsorship needs to fulfil two criteria in my opinion .

A) to bring good initial money into the club
B) to deliver increased awareness of the club on a national level and build the Warriors brand therefore increasing overall revenue.

Whilst I of course do not know the actual monies involved I suspect this sponsorship will do neither.

How many sponsors have we had who fit the second criterion? None? They pay to be our sponsors to put their name out there, not the other way around.

Yes I agree sponsors pay to have their name out there, but at the same time we should get benefit as well. Sponsorship should ideally be a partnership in which we push the sponsor brand (providing it is appropriate) but at the same time, every time someone sees the sponsor name there should be some link with the club.

An example is, most people think of Arsenal when Emirates is mentioned. I'm not saying we are in that league, I just think a better more well known sponsor would help the club image more and at the same time attract more businesses to the club.

Except there is no storm. Some people aren't that impressed by the sponsorship deal. Is that really such a big deal that you have to keep squealing about "prophecies of doom" every other sentence? You know what's really yawn inducing? People trying to tell others what they should and shouldn't discuss, and doing so in such hysterical, melodramatic fashion, when if they really didn't want to discuss it they could just, you know, not do.

Really?

[urlhttp://www.amnesty.org/en/region/uae[/url

There does seem to be a degree of arrogance from some quarters who assume we should be attracting big-ticket, blue-chip companies because...well, because we're Wigan aren't we. I've no idea of the numbers (£) but I'd guess the shirt sponsor is fairly low on the pecking order in the grand scheme of things. So why not a charity or local business that can feed back directly into the borough? Some might want to look up the definition of snobbery when they've a minute or three.

Your point is different because Arsenal are massive, they have that exposure that makes it a partnership as you hear about Arsenal more than Emirates generally. We were sponsored by Mecca Bingo a few years ago. They are a big name, they have 100 bingo halls across the UK, and are ran by a group which is also the largest casino operator in the UK and did a lot of online gambling at the time as well as they owned Blue Square. Now, bearing in mind how many members of the general public they must reach every single day, do you think they improved our image, or attracted more business to the club? Did people other than SL fans think 'Wigan' when they saw Mecca Bingo? The answer to both questions is 'no', and I can't see why it would be otherwise for any other large company. There's no incentive for them to do it, we aren't paying them after all

I would much rather them do that than have a full on civil war like the rest of the middle east, Also that is a massively biased website. Ask the majority of Expats living here and they will say they have a fantastic and safe life style. But i think the poster was trying to suggest the Labour camps for unskilled Indian workers who would be live on the streets begging and stealing or starving to death back in India, which emirates as a company has nothing to do with.

God forbid we should have a bit of ambition eh? I imagine that if Warrington hadn't struck a deal with a global brand then this discussion might not have included "blue chip" companies, but there would still be a discussion because a local housing association doesn't foster the image that some of us think we should be aiming for.

Don't get me wrong, the UAE does appear to be one of the least objectionable regimes in the area (as a raging atheist, any state built & run on religious grounds does not get my vote) and I'm not going to be a flag waver for Amnesty any time soon. But you can't deny the whole area has questions to answer to one degree or another..

Anyway, back to the thread's topic.......

Ambition is one thing, but a common theme in here does seem to be that the WW brand is above some penny ha'penny outfit that nobody's heard of further away than Billinge.

I honestly don't see anything wrong with that outlook. There are successful brands at one end of the spectrum that we associate with world famous clubs and there are less successful brands at the other end that we associate with Sunday league pub teams. The fact of the matter is that whilst the sponsor pays for exposure via the club shirt their branding does contribute to the image of the club (and sport), and a brand that isn't seen as successful affects the image of the club and the game.

Thanks CyberPieMan. I really didn't think that people were so ignorant of this stuff. Perhaps I shouldn't be so lazy in future!

like i said much happier with that than innocent people being effected by a civil war for absolutely no reason as people in Dubai live a fantastic life style and have the option to earn life changing money. The culprits was trying to cause trouble for no reason and the majority are guest in the country there not even locals. People know the laws here and if they break them they get punished. Would you bat and eyelid if the same happened to anjim choudary? I know i wouldn't.

You're not on about this are you?


You can't think it's alright to do that to someone who hasn't been convicted of any crime, surely? Apologies if you were on about a different point, I know there were a lot of links in there

People don't just get detained for nothing believe it or not, Dubai and the UAE has evolved from the middle ages unlike a lot of tabloids and biased websites would have you believe. All cases here are made public but that website doesn't say why he had been arrested and what criminal convictions he faces. lots of people cry wolf like the women who hit a police officer after being told 3 times to stop whilst having sex on a beach (jail for 6months only served 3months and deported).

Also just to disperse another myth you don't get your hands chopped off if you steal incase anybody still believes that. But executions do happen to drug dealers and smugglers if they have a certain a big quantity of drugs they also get beaten until they tell the police who provided the drugs.

Overal people who live here are very happy with the judicial system, cant explain how nice it is not to worry about my car being stolen or house broken into which happened 3 times whilst living in Upholland and the police did squat about it.